Ben May knows it’s a crowded field when it comes to sports and family-oriented entertainment in this part of the Northeast.

“We know there’s a lot to do,” said May, the president of Pocono Raceway. “You can go to Phillies games, and see the Flyers and 76ers. You can go to Knoebel’s Grove and Dorney Park. We just want to make it attractive for you to come here.”

That’s why May, Pocono Raceway CEO Nick Igdalsky and others on the raceway’s management team are continually adding things to the Monroe County facility.

A few years ago, a dog park was added to the infield along with block parties in the days leading into the race.

This year, an inclusive children’s playground and Wi-Fi hotspots have been added along with 55 spots for power and water for campers.

More is to come according to Igdalsky. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said.

“We’re in the business of fun; it’s what we do,” May said. “We think we’re pretty good at it. Nick and I used to have a friend who worked for the hospital and he said to us one day that we’re helping the quality of life around here. That caught us by surprise. We don’t think that highly of ourselves.

“But then we got to think about it and we offer four tickets for $99 for a family and we’re trying to provide good, clean fun. There’s a lot of terrible stuff in this world. We want to be an outlet for people to come out and enjoy ourselves.”

Pocono will again host three major weekends this summer with the first being the Monster Energy Cup Pocono 400 on June 1-3.

NASCAR returns the weekend of July 27-29 and the Verizon IndyCar Series will make its sixth consecutive stop after a 23-year gap on Aug. 18-19.

Josef Newgarden, the defending Verizon IndyCar champ and winner of the most recent race in Alabama on Monday, came to Pocono on Wednesday to help promote this year’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono and the series.

After the 2013 and 2014 races, held around the Fourth of July, didn’t generate the expected crowds, there was some doubt whether Pocono and IndyCar would forge a long-term relationship.

In 2015, the IndyCar race was moved from July to August. That changed worked out well and last year Pocono experienced a 15 percent increase in attendance, although it should be noted that the 2016 race was moved from Sunday to Monday because of a rainout.

“The change to August has probably helped,” Igdalsky said. “If you’re up here around the Fourth of July, you know this area is packed and it’s tough to get people to change their vacation plans. We might have been able to develop a Fourth of July tradition, but it would have taken longer.”

Besides moving the race to the end of summer, IndyCar has also put on entertaining races the last several years, which has boosted interest.

“I was always a fan of IndyCar even before they came back to Pocono and I’m even more of a fan with the type of show they put on,” Igdalsky said. “I try to watch as much of the race as possible when they’re here because it’s that entertaining.”

Last year’ race featured 524 on-track passes and 42 lead changes.

“It’s hard to keep people behind you here,” Newgarden said. “Will [Power, who has won the last two races] has had a very fast car here. So, toward the end of the race it has been hard to catch him because he’s been that quick. But generally, it’s hard to keep people behind you and that creates a lot of passes. It has been thrilling racing here; one of the best races we go to all year.”

Newgarden has won two of the four IndyCar events this season. He has never finished lower than eighth in five previous races at Pocono and was the runner-up in 2015 and 2017.

The change to a new aero-kit in IndyCar hasn’t changed Newgarden’s winning ways. He expects to be a top contender in August.

“With the new car, this race at Pocono should be even better,” he said. “The whole idea behind the new car is to move all of the downforce to the bottom side of the car. It should allow us to follow closer, it should allow us to not be as disrupted by the car in front.

“We don’t know how we’ll be yet on a super speedway, but from what we’ve seen on street courses, road courses, short oval, it has been an aggressive improvement. Not that we had bad races before, but we’re making it better. We’ve had a good show everywhere we’ve been.”